Gravesend West Line
There was some internal discussion over the eventual siting of the terminus which was changed to Bath Street and then finally to Stuart Road.
In 1916, at the height of the First World War, the Dutch Batavia Line introduced a steamer service from the West Street Pier to Rotterdam.
This argument did not take account of the fact that towns such as Bromley, Orpington and even Rochester have one route to Victoria and another to Charing Cross and Cannon Street.
The Southern Railway concentrated goods traffic on the West Branch, thereby relieving Gravesend Central and the North Kent Line.
By the 1950s, freight traffic was down to one service a day, no doubt helping the line win a competition in 1950 for the best-maintained section of track.
The north end of the line was physically disconnected from the rest of the branch and by September only 1,100 yards or 1,000 metres remained beyond Southfleet.
The extant section of the line briefly reopened between 1972 and 1976 to serve APCM's coal concentration depot at Southfleet.
[1] It was the chance discovery in 1980 that the track remained intact that led to an attempt to reopen the Gravesend West Branch as a heritage railway.
Notices were placed in the local press which eventually led to the setting up of the North Downs Steam Railway Society to operate a section from Fawkham Junction to Southfleet as a steam-worked line.
A magazine, "The Downs Line", was published regularly and meetings were held at St. Mark's Church Centre in Rosherville.
[2] In November 1982 BR asked for a down payment of £25,000 for the track, with £5,000 to be paid up front as an indication of the Society's intention to lease the land.
[2] Unknown to the Society, a third party - Resco (Railways) Ltd - a professional restoration company, had been looking to set up a museum in the Kent area which would feature exhibits of rural transport around 1914.
Attracted by the presence of a ready-established preservation society on the Gravesend Branch, Resco began negotiations with BR for the purchase of the track and an option for a lease on the land, subject to them obtaining a Light Railway Order.
[6] CTRL services would follow a route running alongside the M2 and A2 as far as Pepper Hill between Gravesend and Southfleet before curving south on a spur just before the B262 Station Road to join the alignment of the Gravesend Line along as far as Fawkham Junction where it joins the Chatham Main Line and proceeds to Waterloo.
[8] Gravesend Borough Council has announced in its local plan its attention to seek agreement with BR to convert the remaining section of the line within the town into recreational use.
[11] The North Downs Railway Society managed, however, to recover the platform canopy from Gravesend West station and this has been installed at Groombridge.
[13] Regular passenger services ceased in 2007 over the Channel Tunnel Rail Link between Fawkham Jn and Pepper Hill (occupying the former Gravesend West Line) when phase 2 of the CTRL route to St. Pancras International was opened.
